'Blue' director signs Sonal Chauhan opposite John Abraham

Mumbai, May 8 (IANS) Tony D'Souza, who has worked with Katrina Kaif, Lara Dutta and Kylie Minogue in his much-discussed "Blue", has zeroed in on Sonal Chauhan to play the lead role opposite John Abraham in his next film, which will be an action-adventure drama.

"Yes, we've met and I'm doing Tony's film," said the "Jannat" girl Sonal Chauhan, who herself approached Tony when she came to know about his film.

Sonal rejected a number of projects including the Bhatts' "Jashan" and finally surfaced in Punjab for shooting M.F. Husain's son Owais Husain's film where she suffered a burn injury.

Speaking from Chandigarh, she said: "It could've been much worse. There I was on a crane, heading towards the sky when these two floodlights came close to my face. No one had any idea how warm the lights were. By the time I was brought down the damage had already been done. I was singed and in pain."

"You know more care is taken during these backwater outstation shootings. I'm now well on the way to recovery. And I love Chandigarh. I don't want to leave this place although our schedule is nearly over," she said.

"The moment I heard Owais' project I knew this was what I wanted to do. I didn't care how commercial it sounded. It just sounded right for me. I've always done what I instinctively felt to be right."

About turning down the Bhatts after they gave her a break in "Jannat", Sonal said: "I wouldn't say I turned them down. It was just not what I wanted to do at that time. Now I hear Mahesh Bhatt saab himself has directed 'Jashan'. So it must have turned out really special."

Now the latest controversy in Sonal's career is a fake website that someone launched, apparently pretending to be her.

"When I heard about it I couldn't let it go because I was launching my own website. I put my lawyers on to the imposter. We tracked the culprit down and brought him to book. I think it's very important for known people in our entertainment industry to stand up against cyber crimes. We take them too casually and encourage hackers and imposters," said Sonal, who completed a Kannada film after "Jannat".